Practical

From early in my Christian life I have looked for the practical application to the Gospel.  I want it to work on a day-to-day basis.  I want to be a follower of Christ not just on Sundays.

Last evening we attended a Christmas eve service at the Rockefeller Chapel on the University of Chicago campus.  We went to what we thought was a Christmas program for our granddaughter,  Anashe.  Turned out to be a little bigger production than that.  I wore my best orange Cabella's long sleeved t-shirt.

The chapel is huge.  The ceiling is somewhere between 60-70 feet to the top.  It has a two console pipe organ...real thing...that dominates the side wall on the right in the front.  The service was Episcopalian in flavor, led by the "church" there at the chapel.  I guess it really would be more a cathedral than chapel.

It had been a long time since I had heard pipe organ music.  There just isn't anything like it.  We listened to a prelude and then it accompanied us as we sang Christmas carols.  We realized by the shape of our voices how long it had been since we sang songs in 4 parts.  It was much more formal than we have experienced in recent years and yet it still had a beauty.  I wanted at times to raise my hands to the loving Father who had sent us his son.

In the midst of the program they had the kids add their parts and it reminded me of a youtube video I saw a few days ago.  In it the kids portrayed the Christmas story--the birth of Jesus.  They were from Australia or New Zealand based on their accents.  But one thing stuck out in contrast to where I was last evening.  They mentioned that Mary and Joseph stayed in a stable and then they showed something I had never seen in the portrayal of the story before.  A pile of cow manure.

At first I was a little shocked but last night it all made sense.  When Jesus came he made sure he came to our world in all its unglossed glory.  Stables have animal manure in them.  I haven't seen one yet that didn't stink.  That's why mucking out stalls is not the most enjoyable work to be done.  If you think bed bugs are gross what would it be like to sleep in a barn with animals...in their waste?

But that's when I had my Aha! moment.  My Father...your Father...is very practical.  He came to where the entire people he wanted to reach could understand...a stable.  Not a pristine five star hotel, the mansion of the governor or the castle of a king.  He came into our world in such a way that we could all identify with his humanity and humility.  How practical is that?

So I'm excited to see what new ways the Father surprises me with his practicality in the New Year.  Watch for him to show you too.  He is speaking right now.